With federal moves to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Arctic Ocean, and a plan to build a road through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge’s designated wilderness, Alaska has become ground zero in the Trump administration’s efforts

Joining the Trump administration’s assault on federal lands across America, the state of Alaska is preparing to renew efforts to explore for oil on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

In what is shaping up to be one of the largest public lands sell-offs in American history, the Trump administration is preparing to potentially open all 23 million acres of Alaska’s Western Arctic to oil drilling.

In a preview of what could happen with offshore drilling in the Arctic Ocean, an underwater natural gas pipeline has been leaking in Alaska since December, and no repair is expected until late April, at the earliest.

Emboldened by Donald Trump’s election, the Republican-controlled Congress has again set its sights on opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. The threat to the refuge’s fragile coastal plain is greater than it has been in more than a decade.